Post Media Systems LLC v. Spotify USA Inc. DC

On August 13, 2019, John T. Meli, Jr., the founder of Equitable IP Corporation, brought one of the many Texas entities associated with the monetization firm out of tax forfeiture in the state. A few days later that entity, Post Media Systems LLC, has resuscitated a litigation campaign that went dormant roughly two years ago, suing Alphabet (Google) (1:19-cv-05539), Apple (1:19-cv-05538), and Pandora (1:19-cv-05540) over a family of patents generally related to managing media files for playback over a computer network. Defendants throughout the campaign have been accused of infringement through the provision of music and radio online services and related apps, in these new complaints, Google Play, Apple Music, and Pandora Radio, respectively.

The sole litigation campaign of Post Media Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Equitable IP Corporation, is developing a pattern of serial assertion. On the heels of September and October settlements ending cases filed against iHeartMedia and Spotify, the NPE filed a November suit against SoundCloud. Now that the court has stayed all deadlines in that case in light of an impending settlement, Post Media has filed a new case against Slacker (2:17-cv-00252). All patents in a family of five (7,069,310; 7,472,175; 8,015,263; 8,725,832; 8,959,181) are asserted in the new complaint; the patents generally relate to managing media files for playback over a computer network, with the defendants throughout the campaign accused of infringement through the provision of their music and radio online services and related apps.

Post Media Systems LLC has kept its sole litigation campaign alive, filing suit against SoundCloud (2:16-cv-01269) after a September settlement with iHeartMedia and an October settlement with Spotify. All patents in a family of five (7,069,310; 7,472,175; 8,015,263; 8,725,832; 8,959,181) are asserted in the new complaint, subsets having been asserted against the prior two defendants. The family generally relates to managing media files for playback over a computer network, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of their music and radio online services and related apps. Post Media’s is one of seven litigation campaigns, in disparate technical fields, initiated by entities managed by Erik Stamell, now the president of NPE Equitable IP Corporation, since November 2015.

This past week saw the number of newly formed Texas NPEs managed by Michigan attorney Erik Stamell to launch litigation double, from two to four. First, Post Media Systems LLC asserted three patents (7,069,310; 7,472,175; 8,725,832) in new cases against iHeartMedia (2:16-cv-00649) and Spotify (2:16-cv-00650). Those patents-in-suit generally relate to managing media files for playback over a computer network, with the defendants accused of infringement through provision of their music and radio online services and related apps. Next, Optical Measurement Systems, LLC accused Broadcom (Avago) (1:16-cv-0468) and Marvell (1:16-cv-00469) of infringing a single patent (8,838,822), generally related to translating packet-based data into a serial data stream, through the sale of the defendants’ optical transceivers. Also this week, Digital Audio Encoding Systems, LLC added seven defendants to a campaign that it kicked off one month ago by filing a case against Apple. With nearly 20 new NPEs formed in Texas since August 2015, more Stamell-managed litigation campaigns seem destined to follow in 2016.